Derbyshire v Gloucestershire One-Day Trophy

Last night I said that we needed a "Cometh the hour, cometh the man" moment. Instead, we had two variants - the plural, together with the Godleman...

I didn't see the Derbyshire innings due to a little thing called work, but I got home for the start of the reply and then caught the highlights later. I was really taken with the commitment of the Derbyshire players, who held some terrific catches and produced some stellar work in the field. Wes Durston held two fine catches of contrasting skill sets, Alex Hughes and Scott Elstone were brilliant in the field and the side was captained with a level of astuteness by Wayne Madsen (or is it Madsden, as Sky irritatingly call him) that was a delight to see. Nor should the constant 'chirping' of Gareth Cross be overlooked, keeping the field on its toes. Tom Poynton will have enjoyed that.

The bowling had its less directed moments, but the highs outweighed them. Star turn was Mark Footitt, who bowled scarily quickly at times. Certainly too quickly for poor Michael Klinger, who ended up in hospital with a broken arm after fending off a Footitt flyer.

There were a few erratic deliveries, but the merit of the bowler was obvious, not least to the commentary team. You could almost see the words "our Mitchell Johnson" running through their heads and there is little doubt that Footitt's pace is sufficient to unsettle any batsmen. Another winter of development and fitness work and...who knows?

Then there was the ball of the day from David Wainwright. The chinaman that bowled the impressive Chris Dent was stunningly effective and the bowler could not have bowled it better in his dreams. The initial comment of "his arm ball" seemed woefully inadequate to me at first viewing, the ball ripping across the hapless batsman far more quickly than an arm ball could ever do. His reaction was priceless, just as the impact was on the game and our season.

Gloucestershire fought well and were never out of the game thanks to some spirited hitting from Dent, Alex Gidman and Jack Taylor, but Derbyshire always seemed to have it under control and took wickets at the right times to peg them back.

Earlier there were fine innings in contrasting styles from Wayne Madsen, Scott Elstone (who fully justified his selection) and Tony Palladino, but the standout was Billy Godleman (pictured). He carried on in similar vein to Scarborough and anyone watching will realise that the lad can play. He has a sound technique, as well as shots around the wicket and was only denied a century by an umpiring decision that was, frankly, awful. The wicket-keeper did well for them throughout the game, but his appeal for a leg-side catch followed on from that of the bowler like the dying throes of a Mexican wave as it finished the final side of the stadium. It was poor and I felt for the lad. He produced a top effort though and can be rightly proud of it.

Meanwhile over at Old Trafford, Leicestershire collapsed like a pack of cards and a weakened Lancashire breezed to an eight-wicket win with twenty overs to spare, meaning we earned the right to a quarter-final away at the home of our dear local rivals on Tuesday.

They will start favourites and rightly so. We will be rank outsiders and the likelihood is that we will emerge on the wrong side of the result. But this is a young and impressive side who work for one another and the greatest achievement is in getting to this stage having started on minus two points. Write us off at your peril...

11 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I too only watched the run chase and was impressed with how enthusiastic the players appeared. They seem to genuinely enjoy playing together.

Re the bowling, Footitt was obviously the standout, but it was nice to see Wainwright bowl well. Cotton looks like he could easily add a yard of pace with a bit more effort in delivery - what are your thoughts on this?

agree peakfan - work stopped me driving down from sheffield but caught most on sky later and very proud of the team - really impressed with footit and pleased for billy g and wainwright - live on sky again tuesday so lets give it a real go

Very pleased for Billy G. I'm sure he has his critics due to not scoring as heavily as he would like in Championship cricket. However, his limited over performances have been impressive this season. He has shown how versatile he can be by batting in a range of positions in limited overs cricket, from opening in the 1 day cup to the middle order in T20's.Do you think that he could do a job in the middle order in Championship cricket? Also, do you think he warrants a contract extension? (as I believe he is on the final year of his contract, however i could be wrong)

Great night of cricket, and who knows in a one-off game of cricket anything can happen. it should a interesting night on Tuesday night against notts, then hopefully a semi-final at home in front of a packed house.

They won last night for a very good friend and rock solid (lifelong) Derbyshire supporter who was to have been at the match yesterday but sadly past away, unexpectedly, earlier in the week. I'm sure it must have put a smile on his face. Thanks lads.

Fantastic result. I watched our innings and the first ten overs or so of there's before leaving... Dent was properly tucking into our bowling when I left so I'm rather relieved we got him out.

I'd love a win on Tuesday, obviously, but in many ways I don't mind - winning this one and getting through is a great achievement and finally gives us something to build on, whereas it would have been tough on the team if we'd just fallen short. Anything on Tuesday would be a bonus.

That result has lifted a rather large monkey off our back,which I think has surprised all of us.Coming on the heels of an awful 20/20 and handicapped by the two point deduction makes it even more surprising.

Godleman has been threatening this innings for a little while and seems a more confident player these days. It was a good team effort though North is still a major concern in the batting line-up. Generally we bowled quite well and Klinger,s injury seemed to knock some of the stuffing out of our opponents,Dent and Taylor excluded.

We will have to be at our absolute best if we are to progress any further,but the task is by no means impossible.

Great performance from the lads. A true team effort. Watching the highlights of the game yesterday I even heard a new one for Madsen's name Marsden but the commentator did quickly realise the error they had made.

I see we are being linked with Thakor and Buck, 2 good players who would improve our team.

About Me

I've been a fan of Derbyshire since 1967 and experienced the ups and downs with everyone else.
I work for a major retailer and love my job, although wishing it was closer to Derby!
I'm married to the gorgeous Sylvia, have been for 32 years and we have two great
kids. There's Steve "Man Mountain", who is 26, 6'5" and a computer software engineer for a multi-national company. Then there's the lovely perky Rachel, who
at 20 has the sunniest of all dispositions at any time of day. Not forgetting Wallace, the fox terrier, a quite wonderful dog!
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